Wednesday, September 03, 2008

This is quite the mind-twister in terms of how humans are just one small cog in the wheel...

Humans introduce and spread damaging invasive knapweeds through contaminated agricultural seed supplies as well as through all the soil disturbances we create (via overgrazing, off road vehicles, etc.). Then we introduce an insect to control them - a natural predator of the weed from Europe. But unexpectedly, the 'biocontrol' agent insect ends up becoming a food source for native rodents, resulting in an explosion of their numbers. Of course, the main food source of these rodents is NATIVE plant seeds. The result is lower numbers of native plants, which creates more space for more knapweed to invade... Remember, this is a weed that causes ranchers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars per year - not only in control costs, but also in lost forage, reduced livestock carrying capacity, and thus reduced land/real estate values.

Again and again, our unsustainable behavior ends up coming back to bite us in the ass. This is why the best solution to environmental problems like weed invasions is to prevent the human impacts that cause them from happening in the first place. The details of the study are below...

About the Author

Jonathan L. Gelbard, Ph.D. is a rare combination of conservation scientist, sustainability expert and communication specialist. He is a top notch researcher, writer, speaker and problem-solver who excels at serving as a bridge — applying the science underlying sustainability to help citizens, businesses and decision-makers devise cutting-edge solutions.